Translated material
Saved schedule
In Chile, the Russian team will perform without Davydenko and Yuzhny
Today in the city of La Serena, located five hundred kilometers north of Santiago on the Pacific coast, the match of the first round of the Davis Cup World Group begins between the Chilean national team and the current trophy holders, the Russians. Our team will perform in a weakened lineup - without the third racket of the world Nikolai Davydenko and the semi-finalist of the recent ATP tournament in Zagreb Mikhail Youzhny. Team captain Shamil Tarpishchev now has six players included in the preliminary application at his disposal: Marat Safin, Igor Andreev, Teimuraz Gabashvili, Dmitry Tursunov, Igor Kunitsyn and Yuri Shchukin.The players had an agreement with Tarpishchev that Davydenko and Youzhny would miss the February Davis Cup match in advance, last year. However, later personnel problems arose. Dmitry Tursunov has an injured hand, and the talented Evgeniy Korolev has health problems. And yet Tarpishchev did not insist on the participation of Davydenko and Youzhny, so as not to disrupt the tournament schedule of these tennis players.
Mikhail competed in Zagreb last week and lost to host Ivan Ljubicic in a three-set match to reach the final. Youzhny has signed a contract to perform in Marseille - this tournament starts next Monday. Davydenko, who did not take part in official matches after the end of the Australian Open, will also play here. Naturally, traveling diagonally back and forth across the Atlantic would be physically exhausting for the players.
Once again we have to state that with all the interest of fans, traditions and popularity of the Davis Cup, for many professionals this tournament is of secondary importance, like the Women's Fed Cup. And there is no point in appealing to naked patriotism here. The world number one Roger Federer does not consider it necessary to play for his team. At the match with the Spaniards, Switzerland will be represented by a very weak squad that clearly does not correspond to the level of the World Group. David Nalbandian will not play for Argentina in Austria. Such examples occur all the time. The Davis Cup calendar often conflicts with the schedule of international tournaments. The biggest problems, as in the case of the Russians, arise when the visiting team has to fly across the ocean.
This time, Safin and Tursunov had to start for the Russians from Moscow. Gabashvili and Kunitsyn performed at a tournament in Delray Beach (USA), Andreev played directly in Chile on the courts of Viña del Mar. Shchukin also found himself in the Southern Hemisphere, taking part in the Challenger matches in Durban (South Africa). Tarpishchev will name the final lineup before the draw, but for now it is clear that he will place his main bet on Safin and Andreev.
The main characters for the Chileans will be two Olympic champions - Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez. The first in Athens won two golds at once - in singles and doubles (together with Gonzalez). Of course, the leader of the Chilean team is Gonzalez. At the recent Australian Open, he made it to the final, where he played well against the undefeated Federer. Fernando is not a typical South American tennis player. Of course, his favorite surface is clay, but Gonzalez also feels quite confident on hard. In La Serena, the owners prepared a dirt court and built temporary stands with a capacity of 10 thousand people in the university sports complex.
Ticket prices are steep - from $50 to $180 for a single visit and from $125 to $450 for a three-day pass. However, there are discounts for students, and if suddenly the stands are not filled properly, the organizers will include backup options and allow schoolchildren to attend on preferential terms. The national team of our country met three times with the Chileans in the Davis Cup, and all these matches took place in Moscow - in 1963, 1976 and 2005. Each of these confrontations ended in victory for the hosts. The season before last, the Russians won with a score of 4:1, but Massu was not among the guests, who also did not want to make the tedious journey.